The Legacy of Liliane Webb

1931-1999

Liliane Webb devoted her life to philanthropic endeavors including visual arts, community service, museum expansion and programs, and numerous cultural initiatives. In 1999, the Society of Performers, Artists, Athletes, and Celebrities for Space Exploration (SPAACSE), Inc., established the $1000 Liliane Webb Art Scholarship to honor her outstanding contributions to arts and society at the local, national, and international levels.

Her devotion to community and the humanities was influenced by her early years. Born in Berlin, Germany in 1931, Liliane Lehmann grew up surrounded by books, music, and art. She was deeply instilled with values by her father, a famous author of art interpretation books. It was not long before the Nazis would wreak havoc on their lives. As punishment for his courageous anti-Nazi writings, and after refusing to join the German military, her father was sent to the Russian front as an ambulance driver. During the 1941 Berlin bombings, Liliane and her sickly brother were sent to live on a farm 30 miles outside of the city. They were treated as child laborers, surviving mainly on turnips and potatoes.

With the 1945 Allied advance, their mother fled Berlin and was reunited with them, serving as an English/German interpreter for the village. Warned by American troops that the Russians were coming to occupy that part of Germany, the family fled to Frankfurt on foot-- a 200 mile journey through the carnage of war. There they stayed with their mother's sister, living on scraps of food. Six weeks later, Liliane's father found them. He had walked several months on foot from Stalingrad. The family moved to Stuttgart, where her father was appointed by U.S. authorities to head up the local office of the de-Nazification program set up by the Allies. Shunned by many of her classmates that had supported the Nazi regime, Liliane stood up for her beliefs and obtained the equivalent of a B.S degree at the Stuttgart College of Foreign Languages. She would become fluent in French, English, Spanish, as well as her native German. She was determined to help people work together and rise above the hatred and lack of understanding she had witnessed as a child.

At age 21, Liliane was appointed as senior interpreter / community relations specialist with the French Charge d'Affaires office in Stuttgart. When her family moved to the U.S., Liliane became a U.S. citizen and worked for the United Nations and the World Health Organization. She then worked for the Bureau of National Affairs Films division in Washington, D.C. In 1957, she married a Sephardic Jewish graduate student and helped him through his Ph.D at American University in Washington, D.C. Converting to Judaism, Liliane, who always felt a deep sense of horror for Hitler's atrocities against the Jews, raised two children, Benjamin and Monique. While doing so, she conducted research on a historical novel about the establishment of the Inquisition and the banishment of Jews from Spain. She traveled to Spain and Morocco in this effort. Her book, The Marranos, was published in the 1980s.

Throughout her life, Liliane's passion for art and culture was demonstrated in her constant efforts to establish artistic programs wherever she went. As a hobby, she enjoyed painting scenes from her holidays in Italy, Spain, France, and Sicily. When she and her first husband divorced in 1970, Liliane decided to move with her children to Montreal in order to bring them up in a multilingual, multicultural atmosphere. Arriving in 1971, she became Executive Director of The Visual Arts Centre. There, she was able to convince French and English to work together to help the arts. She raised the funds, renovated a historical landmark building and relocated the campus, increasing annual enrollment from 750 to 1200 students in the process. She also established a craft gallery and developed a three-year diploma program for full-time students of design, textile arts, and ceramics. In addition she wrote, directed, and produced a 13-part award-winning, bilingual television series on applied arts in Quebec.

Once the new Visual Arts Center was in full operation, she developed and directed a 4-million-dollar building fund campaign for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, one of Canada’s premier museums. She served as Chairman of the Planning Committee for the 1976 Conference of Canadian Voluntary Organizations, and directed a two-million dollar building fund for the Montreal YWCA. She coordinated Canadian participation in the International Jewish Film and TV festival in Jerusalem, and was a member of the Executive Committee for Heritage Montreal.

Earlier in all of this activity, Liliane had met and married her second husband, David Webb. He was director of research for a large philanthropic foundation and active in national and international development efforts. She encouraged him to move to D.C. and pursue his efforts to promote space exploration. They moved in 1978, and Liliane became Director of Development for the Alliance to Save Energy. In the1980s, she was appointed Associate Director of The National Learning Center in Washington, D.C., and later, Executive Director of the Children to Children Foundation. She was also an Advisor to the American Indian National bank. As an independent development consultant Liliane was instrumental in the success of numerous programs, ranging from the International Institute of Stress to Meridian House International. She also organized an international polo benefit for the American Paralysis Association and served as a consultant to the Paralysis Cure Research Foundation.

Meanwhile, in 1985, her husband had been appointed by President Reagan as a member of the National Commission on Space. Afterward he was invited to establish the nation’s first multidisciplinary graduate program in Space Studies at the University of North Dakota’s Center for Aerospace Sciences. While in North Dakota, Liliane served as Executive Director of the Discovery Center in Grand Forks, and as a Member of the Arts Committee of the Chamber of Commerce. After they moved to Florida, she became Development Consultant to the University of Central Florida College of Arts and Sciences, where she raised funds for and directed the opening of a brand new arts building, coordinating a week-long celebration of artistic programs and displays. From 1992-1999, she served as Head of Special Projects for the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Florida, raising $1.5 million each year for art exhibitions, museum programs and operations. She was also a member of the American Museums Association.

In the early 1980s, she had become an Associate Member of the International Association for the Astronomical Arts (IAAA), a space artist organization. One of her goals was to establish an annual space art festival and support current and future space artists. SPAACSE intends to carry forward this dream.

Always willing to lend a helping hand, Liliane was dearly loved by her friends and family, and all who met her. Her sunny disposition, warm smile, sincerity, and sheer determination gave her the ability to convince everyone to work together to improve the world. At her memorial service, one person remarked: "Heaven must have been in a real mess, if God needed to send for her." Liliane's legacy is carried on by her husband David, and her two children, Benjamin and Monique.